


There for You

by austenfromhell



Category: Aerial Ethereal Series - Krista Ritchie & Becca Ritchie
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-29
Updated: 2018-07-29
Packaged: 2019-06-18 07:23:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15480567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/austenfromhell/pseuds/austenfromhell
Summary: Just a short scene of an AU where Camila seeks comfort from Dimitri after her fight with Craig (aka Douchebag Dave). They are close friends but is there more there?





	There for You

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys! So this is something I just wrote when I couldn't get Camitri out of my head and I kept imagining how their friendship worked and how close they were. It's hard to write them since we know almost nothing about them so liberties were taken! Thanks for reading <3

“Just stop!” Camila shouted at Craig, pulling her tank top over her head. 

It was always the same thing with him: affection and then arguing. Jealously. Possessiveness. Screaming until her throat felt raw and her heart felt numb. The inevitable break up that would only lead to Craig crawling back to her with sweet words and apologies that she was always stupid enough to believe. 

Wash. Rinse. Repeat. 

“I don’t want you talking with him!” Craig growled, his pants still unbuttoned and slouching off his hips from their almost quickie that ended almost as soon as it started. 

“You can’t tell me who I can and can’t talk to,” she refuted, “who I can and can’t be friends with.” 

“Are you really going to tell me you that you’re choosing that fucker over me?” he snapped, vein bulging from his throat. 

“I’m not choosing him over you,” Camila said impatiently. “But he’s my friend. And I’m not going to stop being friends with him just because you’re feeling insecure.”

He ran his hands through his red hair in frustration. “He wants you, Camila.” 

Camila picked up her purse from the dresser, the energy to fight leaving her. It was always the same thing with Craig. Most of their relationship was filled with moments like this and the happy moments were becoming far and in between. Being happy felt foreign to her when she was around him. Suddenly, she couldn’t remember the last time she had smiled when she with him. 

“According to you, every man in the world wants me,” Camila sighed. “If it was up to you, I’d never talk to any guy. It’s bad enough that we are constantly arguing over my job—“

“Because I hate that you flirt with the men just to get a few extra bucks!” he snapped out harshly. 

“I never flirt with anyone!” Camila shouted, her temper rising. She took a lot of his crap but she hated when he insinuated that she would cheat on him just because she worked in the nightlife. “I smile, I take their order and I move onto the next. Coño, Craig! I’m sick of this! I’m sick of you!”

They both paused at that, the silence tense at they stared at each other: Craig in shock, Camila in sad resignation. Camila hadn’t even known that those words would come out of her mouth, but she couldn’t say that she regretted it. The words made her sad, so incredibly sad, but they also made her feel free. It was something she’d been thinking about for weeks, months really. In the back of her head, she’d had these fleeting thoughts that she would push away because she didn’t want to believe them. She didn’t want to give up on Craig, on her first love. 

But what she had with Craig…it didn’t feel anything like love. Not anymore. 

“You don’t mean that,” Craig said with a quick shake of his head. She could tell from his face that he didn’t believe her, or maybe it’s that he didn’t want to believe her. 

“I do,” Camila whispered, her voice cracking. “I do, Craig. I’m sorry but I do.” 

He looked around his room, blue eyes wild with some kind of emotion that Camila couldn’t quite understand. Finally he walked to her, taking her hands in his and squeezed. “We just need a break. After a few days, this will all seem like a silly fight.” 

Camila stared down at their hands, his pale ones such a stark difference from her golden brown and pulled away. “I don’t want anymore breaks, Craig. I’m done. For real this time.” 

She moved to walk away but his hand reached out again, this time pulling her against him. She could hardly pull away before she felt his lips slam down against her own, his hands squeezing her upper arms like he wanted to hold onto her forever. The kiss didn’t last long, and the fact that she felt nothing the entire time made her sadder than she’d ever felt before. 

He placed a single kiss on her lips before pulling back slightly to look down into her eyes, a determined edge to his words. “I’ll give you some time. But I’m not ready to give up on us.”

Camila said nothing. She pulled herself out of his grasp and walked out of the bedroom, and out of his house.

The moment the door closed behind her, she gasped for air, her body shaking with emotions she didn’t dare let herself feel in front of him. She felt her eyes cloud with tears, and she bit her lip to hold back the whimper she knew wanted to come out. 

“Don’t you dare cry,” she told herself fiercely. She took another deep breath, trying to center herself and her emotions. 

She took out her phone. Her first instinct to call her best friend Thora but she paused, remembering that she was on a date with Nikolai. Camila didn’t want to ruin her night, not when she knew that Thora had been looking forward to it for weeks. Working in Aerial Ethereal, Thora and her other acrobatic friends hardly ever got free time, much less nights to just themselves. 

Instead, Camila called a cab back to the Masquerade hotel; her mind a jumble of thoughts and feelings. But the only thing she could focus on was that she needed to go to the hotel, to him. 

It wasn’t long before she got to the hotel and it took only a few extra minutes for her to get on the elevator and insert the special keycard that he had given her so that she could get to the floors just for Aerial Ethereal artists. 

He might not even be in his room, she reminded herself as she walked down the hall. He could be out with his family, or still at practice. They were all working hard for the new show, “Midnight” that was set to premiere in just a few weeks. 

She paused in front of the door, taking a deep breath before knocking. She ran her fingers through her hair until she remembered that she had curly long hair and her fingers would only get snagged in knots. She winced a moment later, pulling her fingers free of her hair and instead pushed her wild mane back from her neck.

The door opened a moment later and Dimitri Kotova’s towering 6’’5 frame filled her line of vision. He was the tallest person she’d ever seen, besides Nikolai, and she never got over how small she felt standing next to him. She was average height, so it wasn’t about her typically feeling bigger than most people. But it was about how his height made her feel, inside. For some reason, since almost the first time she’d met him, Camila had always felt a sense of safety whenever she was around Dimitri. She didn’t know if it was his height or the way he was around her—like she was precious to him and he’d protect her always—but she liked it. 

“Princess,” Dimitri said in surprise, a pleased grin spreading across his face. Something on her own face must have shown her inner turmoil because his smile left his face a moment later, replaced by a look of concern. “What’s wrong?”

She tried to smile, but she was pretty sure it was a pathetic attempt at one. “I’m sorry for just dropping by without any warning. Can-can I come in?” 

He stepped back, opening his door wider. “Yeah, of course, princess. You don’t even need to ask.” 

She brushed by him and moved into his suite that he shared with Brenden, Zhen and Luka. It was surprisingly empty of his roommates at the moment and the only sound to be heard was the television playing in the living room area. 

The suite in itself was beautiful and something that would cost any typical guest thousands of dollars a night, but because he and his roommates worked for Aerial Ethereal, they got to live here for free. Even though Camila found the rooms beautiful, she couldn’t be too jealous, since she knew that the cost of living in these rooms came out of their checks and made their already small paycheck, even smaller. 

“What’s wrong, Camila?” Dimitri asked again, standing a few feet away from her.   
She looked away from the TV screen and focused on Dimitri, her unlikely friend who had proven to be so much more trustworthy than she’d ever imagined. If you had asked her when she first met him if she thought she’d ever willingly spend time with someone like him, much less be friends with him, she would have laughed in your face. But Dimitri had been the most pleasant surprise. He was both exactly what he showed you and yet so much more. 

“Nothing’s wrong,” she lied, trying to keep all thoughts of Craig out of her head. Now that she was here, she suddenly didn’t want to ruin the rest of her night—and his—by crying all over him. “Can’t a girl just visit her friend when she’s bored?”

Dimitri just stared at her knowingly. She tried to stare back at him impassively but the longer she stared at him; the more she felt her control on her emotions cracking. And before long, she could feel her eyes welling up and two lone tears trailed down her cheeks. 

“Princess,” he said roughly, pulling her into a tight hug. 

She clung onto him, her arms reaching around his waist as she gripped the back of his shirt tightly with her fingers. She laid her face against his chest and she cried. Dammit, she didn’t want to but she cried. He leaned his cheek against the top of her head and whispered soft, consoling words against her hair.

“I’m sorry,” she choked out against his shirt several minutes later. She pulled her face away from his shirt that now had two wet spots from her tears and tilted her head up so that she could see him. He stared down at her, face tense with worry and sadness. “I’m always doing this to you, Dimitri. I’m sorry.” 

“Shh,” he said softly. His hands reached towards her face and he softly dried her tears with his thumbs, his ocean blue eyes staring intently into her honey brown ones. “You don’t ever have to apologize for coming to me, Princess. I want to be here for you. No matter what. Whether that means we watch your favorite telenovelas together and laugh for hours or talking on the phone until 5 am and having to hide in the bathroom like a fucking teenager so I don’t wake my roommates—“ 

She laughed, the sound bubbling out of her mouth unexpectedly. “Dimitri,” she said with a teasing smile, “I didn’t mean to get you grounded with all our late night calls.”

“Now there’s that beautiful smile,” he whispered tenderly, smiling back at her. He leaned down slightly and Camila felt her eyes close in contentment when he placed a soft kiss on her forehead. In that moment she felt at peace, safe…and happy. Dimitri pulled her back into his arms, her face happily leaning against his chest as she squeezed her arms around him. “I’m here for you, Princess. In whatever way you need me.”


End file.
